It all depends on why you are a vegan. If you are trying to minimize harm, will discarding the sour cream reduce the harm? In this case no, so I say eat it. Personally I find it worse to just toss it because then it is also a waste. Will not being more careful in the future to be sure they get your order right cause harm? Potentially. I’d put your effort there… Kindly.

If it is for health reasons, you have to weigh the potential damage of eating it. For most people the risk is small and scraping it off would be fine. For a severe allergy, that wouldn’t be sufficient.

Trust yourself. There are a ton of people who will tell you how to live and they will never all agree. If you are going to disappoint someone no matter what you might as well follow your heart.

Just here to say I feel you and your situation. It’s tough and frustrating. I’ve been there myself!

Don’t overthink it. You are not immoral because you ate half a teaspoon of sour cream you didn’t want anyway. I would’ve done the same as I personally think it’s more harmful to throw away otherwise perfectly good food. You also said yourself that they don’t cater to vegans so the harm was done way before you went in the door and is going to continue. So who is really immoral here? No need to self-flagellate yourself over a sip of sauce that is produced by the million gallons. You did your part, you asked and they messed up because they don’t care about veganism they just want the business.

I tend to avoid this situation by not buying (takeaway) food from non-vegan places. Why support the same places that profit from animal exploitation? Obviously, no ethical consumption under capitalism, but I think it’s harm reduction to not buy food from non-vegan restaurants. This limits me to like one place within a 10km walk, but cooking beans and rice at home is cheaper and healthier for me anyways.

If I were to buy food from some place and they gave me something instead of my order that I don’t want (especially something that makes me an accessory to murder and/or rape) I would ask for a refund. I will not harass the workers at the place, but I would take it up to management if I am not able to get a refund easily. The store should find a way to deal with the food, but they probably won’t. This is just how they’re set up and it’s cheaper for them to dispose of it rather than give it to people who need it.

That being said, if I knew anyone around me that would need/want some food, I would offer it, but I wouldn’t feel comfortable doing it. I definitely won’t eat it, and I would rather starve to death than do so.

The only time I have ever encountered something like this would be when I was hospitalised. Despite the fact I told everyone who tended to me that I was vegan, I kept getting non-vegan food. I refused to eat it and made a fuss and asked to talk to the main person treating me and they were able to and also were the only person who could mark me down as “Vegan”. So more “food” would have been given to me if I hadn’t made a fuss.

Thinking about things as “the damage has already been done” leads to a bit of a slippery slope. Does this mean leather is OK, because it is a coproduct of the animal ag industry? What about the farm animals already alive? They’re already here and suffering, what more harm can be done? (I’m not saying you are thinking like this, but I have seen some people argue for leather by saying something like this)

Anyways, glad there is actually a discussion on /c/vegan about veganism. Who would have thought.

You did the right thing IMO. As long as you won’t have any physical issues eating it, and they weren’t doing it to be a dick, it’s fine to eat for the reasons you mentioned. I would suggest mentioning it as nice as possible.

My personal view is that one shouldn’t eat it.

Part of the rationale for going vegan is to impose economic outcomes on businesses as a result of your demand or lack thereof. Another part is to challenge the status quo and normalise a more ethical alternative.

My view in this situation is that the ethical thing to do if you asked for a vegan item and they didn’t do that is to go back to this place and request that they make you a new item. This imposes a cost on the business, that hopefully means they will be more careful in the future. It also prevents your small portion of profit from fueling demand for animal products by removing or cancelling out that sale from their calculations.

The other portion, is that politely informing the shop about it, educates them on what vegans require, and also normalises veganism and challenges the carnist status quo, both to the business and others around you.

An alternative to eating it that I could think of: you could ask a friend if they’d eat it instead. Or to someone who finds it difficult to get a good meal everyday.

I’ve been in this position a fair few times. I tend to just eat it, even if there’s meat in there. Otherwise the food will just be thrown out and then my impact on the environment is even larger.

I suppose it does help that I only adhere to my vegan diet about 95% of the time. When I already occasionally cheat on my own account, it’s not as big of a deal when it happens on someone else’s account.

Usually I do complain about it, however. And/or leave it in a review. Mistakes happen, I’m usually more concerned by how they handle the mistake.